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DEEP SPACE TRACKINC STATION 0 D S I F 42

COM MONWEAL TH OF AUSTRALIA DEPARTMENT OF SUPPLY

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NATIONAL AERONAUTICS

AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE CONTRACTOR SPACETRACK PTY., LTD .

TIDBINBILLA DEEP SPACE TRACKING STATION

DSIF 42

I NFORMATION BROCHURE

Issued with the compliments of t he

Department of Supply on the occasion

of the offic ial opening by the

Prime Minister, The Right Hon . Sir Robert Menzie s,

K .T. , C. H . , Q.C. , M. P .

March 19, 1965.

POSTAL ADDRESS: The Secretary, Department of Supply

339 Swa nston St., Melbourne, C 1

(or Box No. 22BBU, G.P.O. Melbourne C 1, Vic. )

This is another day of achievement for the U. S. NationalAeronautics and Space Administration

in its great scientific attack on the myst e ries of space and for Australia whose area of cooperation

in the great adventure continues to expand .

I offer you a warm welcome to Dee p Space Instrumentation Facility No. 42 which today officially

joins the world deep-s pace network and which. with two more stations yet to be built, will scan the

limitless reaches of space from the Australian Capital Territory.

It is altogether fitting that these stations should operate from this ation's capital, for the con­

duct of these stations in Australia by Australians illustrates the growing association between

Australia and the United States in the field of scientific endeavour.

But the exercise encourages still wider development of international cooperation and understand­

ing. I recall a few months ago we had the pleasure of welcoming to Australia m embers of the United

States House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics who expressed themselves

as being well pleased with the installation and the standard of conduct of their stations at Woomera,

Carnarvon and here in Canbe rra.

So the programme goes with two-way benefits: to the United States in access to our geography

peculiarly essential to their peaceful scientific endeavours in space and to Australia in access to

the most advanced technology in space research and related activities.

The Department of Supply is proud to carry the responsibility for the efficient management of

this new and important installation but, as a matter of policy, we believe that the scientific benefits

and the experience of operating in the most sophisticated ele ctronics field in the world offers great

opportunities to Australian industry.

We are therefore happy to acknowledge a consortium of private enterprise companies under the

name Space Track Pty. Limited as the successful tende r e rs for the operation of this Tidbinbilla

Space Tracking Station. Thus , to the value of Government-to-Government cooperation, there is

added, for Australia, the benefit of Government-to-Industry association.

Mayall who are associated in any way with D . S . I. F. 42 derive great satisfaction from this

effort to expand the frontiers of human knowledge .

CONTENTS

1. AUSTRALIAN AMERICAN COOPERATION IN SPACE EXPLORATION

2. STATION LOCATION

3. STATION LAYOUT

4. SPACE PROGRAMME

5. THE DEEP SPACE NETWORK

6. STATION APPLICATION

7. SYSTEM EQUIPMENT

8. OTHER ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT

9. STAFFING THE STATION

FIGURES

FIG. 1. STATION LOCATION

FIG. 2. STATION LAYOUT

FIG. 3. SOLAR SYSTEM

FIG. 4. DEEP SPACE NETWORK STATIONS

FIG. 5. MARINER TRAJECTORY TO MARS

PHOTOGRAPHS

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1. AUSTRALIAN/AMERICAN COOPERATION IN SPACE EXPLORATION

An agreement entered into in February 1960 between the Governments of

Australia and the United States of America was aimed at further cooperation in the

field of space flight operations.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States

and the Department of Supply (DOS) in Australia are the government agencies re­

sponsible for fulfilling this agreement. The construction and operation of track­

ing facilities in Australia is financed by NASA and the DOS provides design,

construction, management and operational effort from Australian resources.

The Deep Space Instrumentation Facility (DSIF) at Tidbinbilla has been erected

to provide another link in the world-wide network which supports the prime control

centre of the deep space research programme in America, and is one of a number

of tracking facilities to be established to date by NASA in Australia.

Others are the Space Research Station located at Island Lagoon (Woomera),

which includes a Deep Space Instrumentation Facility (DSIF 41) similar to this

station, a Baker-Nunn Satellite Tracking Camera and a Satellite Tracking Facility;

the Carnarvon (Western Australia) Station for the Manned Space Flight Programme

and Scientific Satellites and the Manned Space Flight Installations at Muchea (West­

ern Australia) and Red Lake (Woomera).

Tidbinbilla is also the first of three NASA Tracking Installations programmed

for the Australian Capital Territory. The second installation for tracking the

larger and more complex of the scientific sate llites is under construction in the

Orroral Valley. The Australian Gove rnme nt has also agreed to the establishment

of a station at Honeysuckle Creek to support the United States Lunar Manned

Spaceflight Project (APOLLO) and construction of that station is expected to begin

shortly.

The DOS is responsible for implementing Australia's commitment in respect

of the Australian stations and this responsibility is discharged through the Weapons

Research Establishment within the Department.

2. STATION LOCATION

The station is located in the Tidbinbilla Valley only eleven air miles from

Canberra, the national capital of Australia. The Tidbinbilla Valley provides an

ideal environment for a DSIF station because the high ridges surrounding the

valley provide masking from man-made interference (particularly radio-frequency

noise) which would seriously reduce the performance of equipment. This, to-

gether with the site's proximity to the city of Canberra, which gives support in the

way of accommodation, communications, personnel, engineering and commercial

services, was one of the primary considerations in selecting the site.

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FIGURE 1. STATION LOCATION

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3. STATION LAYOUT

The station is contained within an area of about ten acres. The 85 ft diameter

antenna is located at the northern end of the valley to give it an unobstructed view

of the sky and the station buildings have been so arranged within the area to cause

the least possible interference with the performance of the antenna and associated

equipments. Landscaping and the planting of trees and lawns, as well as reduc­

ing the risks of fire and soil erosion, provide pleasant surroundings at the station.

Construction was commenced in June 1963 and completed in December 1964

at a cost of about £750,000. The equipment supplied by the Jet Propulsion Lab­

oratory of Pasadena, California, which is responsible to NASA for implementing

the deep space programme, cost about £4,000,000 . The annual operating cost is

expected to be about £600,000 when the station becomes fully operational.

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I FIGURE 2. STATION LAYOUT

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4. SPACE PROGRAMME

The present NASA programme has three major aspects, namely, near-earth

scientific investigations, manned spaceflight and deep-space exploration. In the

brief description which follows, it will become apparent that although the pro­

grammes are conducted in the space environment, their specific requirements

vary considerably and, consequently, different ground stations are needed for

each aspect.

Earth Satellites

These unmanned vehicles orbit the Earth generally in elliptical paths, which

are usually just inside or just outside the Earth's atmosphere, but which may

approach lunar distances away. They provide the means by which valuable scien-

tific data is obtained. Because of their comparatively close proximity to the

Earth, orbit times are generally only about two hours and the satellites require

ground stations at frequent intervals around the Earth to track and communicate

with them. One typical station of this type is being constructed at Orroral Valley,

about 16 miles south of Tidbinbilla. Other major stations already exist at

Woomera (South Australia) and Carnarvon (Western Australia).

Manned Space Vehicles

Because human lives are at stake this aspect of the space programme is the

most critical of all. The Project Mercury programme established the feasi­

bility of launching men into space and effecting a safe recovery. The future

development in this field is to prepare for lunar and planetary exploration by man.

The high degree of equipment reliability called for in this aspect of space flight

requires its own special techniques and procedures and the duplication of essen­

tial services as an insurance policy. The distance from Earth of the presently

planned manned missions varies from about 150 miles during orbital flights to

about 250,000 miles during lunar flights. The Carnarvon Tracking Station, and

the Apollo Tracking Station, to be established at Honeysuckle Creek about 12

miles from Tidbinbilla, will be used for communicating with and tracking manned

vehicles on lunar journeys. The Tidbinbilla station will be used as a back-up to

the Apollo station during these missions.

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Deep Spa ce Prob es

This aspect is confined to exploration of the moon and the solar system

using unmanned spacecraft, and involves distanc es up to hundreds of millions of

miles from the Earth and periods up to several months for anyone mission . To

maintain contact with the spacecraft maximum sensitivity must be achieved in

all aspects of the ground and spac e borne instrumentation by using the most highly

developed tec hniques in the design and engineering of the equipment.

It is possible to maintain communications with these probes from three

stations located equidistant in longitude around the Earth's surface, because

after a probe has reached a distance of approximately 50, 000 miles from Earth,

overlap between the three stations occurs. The degree of overlap continues with

increase in the probe distance . Unlike satellites which normally cross the sky

in a period of minutes, these probes cross the sky at much the same rate as a

star and are visible from anyone station for periods of many hours.

This brief outline of the space programme indicates why three outwardly

similar stations with 85ft diameter antennas will be installed near Canberra and

how they will each have their own special role to fulfill .

5. THE DEEP SPACE NETWORK

The solar system is vast compared with the Earth. Although the orbits of

Earth's closest planets, Venus and Mars, are only tens of millions of miles dis­

tant, the planets' different periods of revolution around the Sun and the fact that

the present technique of launching a probe involves a curved trajectory may cause

the actual distanc e of a probe from Earth at pass-by of a planet to reach several

hundred million miles . To reach the farthest planets would involve distances of

several thousand million miles. The relative distances from the Sun of the

orbits of the various planets within the solar system are shown in the di agram

overleaf.

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FIGURE 3. SOLAR SYSTEM

Because of the immense distances over which communications must be main­

tained in deep space missions, freedom from man-made radio frequency inter­

ference is essential at a DSIF station. In such a low-noise environment, the

signal-gathering capability of a large antenna and a highly sensitive receiving

system can be fully exploited in dealing with the weak signals that have to be

handled.

In the recent Ranger mission to the moon, thousands of excellent television

photographs were obtained commencing about 15 minutes prior to impact of the

spacecraft on the moon's surface, the distance from Earth then being approxi­

mately 250,000 miles. In the final stages of the present Mariner-Mars mission

(when the probe will be about 140 million miles away) the probe's TV equipment

will photograph the Martian surface 20 times in approximately 20 minutes, these

pictures being stored on magnetic tape and transmitted back to Earth over a

p':'!riod of 20 days as the probe proceeds beyond Mars.

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Another facet of the stations' operations involves tracking the space probe to

determine its path for navigation purposes and commanding it to apply corrections

to its course and to switch ce rtain spacecraft functions as required.

It has been shown earlier in this text that only three stations are required to

provide communications with a deep space probe. While this is true, the present

projected commitments of the space programme are such that duplication of the

stations in each sector is necessary to cope with the load, and Tidbinbilla has

been erected in support of the Woomera station in this sector of the world.

Two stations already exist at Goldstone (California) and one at Johannesburg

(South Africa). In support of the latter station, a new station is under construc­

tion at Madrid (Spain).

FIGURE 4. DEEP SPACE NETWORK STATIONS

The operational control of the Deep Space Network is vested in the Space

Flight Operational Facility (SFOF) located at Pasadena, California, to which in­

formation received from the space probes is forwarded by each station for data

processing and analysis. It is from this centre that all commands are generated

before being passed to the appropriate station for transmission to the probe. The

SFOF is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California to

which NASA has allotted the task of implementing the deep space programme.

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6 . STATION APPLICATION

The present commitment of Tidbinbilla DSIF is to continue tracking the

Mariner-Mars probe (which it took over from the Woomera station on 1st Febru­

ary, 1965) until 20 days after the probe passes Mars on 15th July, 1965. This

task will require 9 hours tracking a day for 7 days a week until the probe passes

out of range of the station.

The primary obje ctive of the Mariner mission is to obtain TV pictures of the

surface of the planet Mars and scientific measurements of basic features such as

the Martian magnetic field, etc. It is also hoped to identify organic characteris­

tics of the Martian atmosphere and the surface of Mars. Secondary objectives

are to obtain experience and knowledge of the behaviour of the basic spacecraft

and its payload during a long flight in space and to obtain certain field and part­

icle measurements in interplanetary space.

A diagram of the Mariner trajectory to Mars is shown below to illustrate the

curved path departure from Earth, the relative positions of Earth and Mars

throughout the mission, and portion of the orbit the Mariner will ultimately take

up about the Sun.

MARS AT LAUNCH

EARTH AT LAUNCH 28th NOVEM8ER 1964

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_--~030 day . (DEC.28th ) o --::/:./ 1_----- --~~ ~- --()60 \ \ 'I

30 da y.()- ___ -----l ( -=i(J= ( _-- / \ --f)90 ~

60() /' \ II \ \ \ // :t ______ _ t)120 .228 day.

906) " ~ ........ 210 A.--'\. / ~~ 150 180. /~~. " ' ---W-.~ , (> 120 15. ~------ ... ....... .."./ /o::J:l

~./ ~ ------ /' 4" ., ~..... ,/ /~ , 150 _____ .. ' ___ ./ !.:::.~

180·- i- • or-210 / 228 day.

ENCOUNTER 15th JULY 1965

FIGURE 5 . MARINER TRAJECTORY TO MARS

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Later in the year, Tidbinbilla DSIF 42 will participate in the Surveyor pro­

gramme which is designed to carry out a soft landing (1. e. a controlled landing)

on the moon to extend exploration of the lunar environment prior to the Apollo

manned vehicle exploration. The station will track the space vehicle for periods

of up to 9 hours each day during its three-day flight and continue to receive TV

pictures and scientific data from the stationary vehicle on the moon's surface

when conditions are favourable . As these vehicles obtain their power through

solar panels, they will not transmit when in shadow . An extensive programme

of Surveyor missions is planned, and it is expected that each vehicle will have a

life of two months.

Concurrently with the Surveyor programme, the station will be involved in

tracking and communicating with a spacecraft during a Pioneer mission in which

a deep space probe will be put into orbit about the Sun to carry out scientific in­

vestigation of interplanetary space . Its penetration of space will be the deepest

yet made and it is expected to remain in orbit for an indefinite period. The first

of the Pioneer probes was launched in association with the International Geo­

physical Year in 1958 during a period of maximum solar activity (sun spots),

while the projected mission will be launched in a period of least solar activity.

The Pioneer spacecraft is a relatively simple vehicle with no command facilities.

The station will maintain an intermittent watch on this vehicle.

7. SYSTEM EQUIPMENT

The DSIF system is a complex of subsystems with ability to communicate

with spacecraft over long distances . This is mainly due to the antenna having

great Signal-gathering powers and the microwave feed and low-noise amplifier

(the temperature of which is maintained at minus 26 90 C by liquid helium) being

able to handle very weak signals.

The antenna dominates the station. The 200-ton structure is designed and

built to extremely close tolerances which must be maintained in order to provide

accuracy and efficiency. An indication of the tolerance allowed is evident in the

85 ft diameter reflector surface (commonly called the" dish") which has to be

accurately paraboloidal to within:!: t inch. The antenna is equatorially mounted

and is free to rotate about two axes. The lower axis (hour angle) is aligned

parallel to the earth's axis while the upper axis (declination) is aligned at 900

to

the hour-angle axis. The antenna is capable of being driven at two speeds, the

maximum of which is one degree per second.

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Signals from the low-noise amplifier on the antenna are passed to a receiver

in the operations building . From the output of this receiver, the signal is fed to

a telemetry/TV decoder which relays the data to magnetic tape recorde rs or to

a direct teletype link to the SFOF at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Similarly,

tracking data handling equipment accepts information from the same receiver and

from the antenna angular readout to provide information on spacecraft range,

velocity and angular direction. This information is also sent directly to JPL by

the teletype link.

A 10 kilowatt transmitter, which is part of the command link, is mounted

directly in an instrumentation room on the underside of the antenna reflector to

ensure maximum efficiency. From information supplied by the SFOF, command

data is processed through a command coder and thence to the transmitter.

Data received from the spacecraft would be of little use unless it is related

accurately to time and, to provide this reference, the station has a rubidium

primary frequency standard the accuracy of which is equivalent to gaining one

second in 4,000 years.

8. OTHER ASSOC I ATED EQUIPMENT

G round Commun icat i on s

Permanently rented circuits for teletype and voice are provided directly be­

tween Tidbinbilla and the United States. The flow of information between the

world-wide network of tracking stations and the operations centre (SFOF ) prior

to and during a mission is extensive and the success of a mission is dependent on

the ability to transmit information quickly. The voice circuit enables the SFOF

in the United States to brief all the stations simultaneously on mission require­

ments and subsequent changes. It also enables the stations and other units of

the network to discuss problems relating to the work. The circuits within

Australia are provided and maintained by the PMG Department, while those be­

tween Sydney (N. S. W.) and the United States are the responsibility of the Over­

seas Telecommunication Commission (Australia).

Power Suppl i e s

The continuity of power supplied to the station equipment is vital to the oper­

ation of the tracking and communication system. Even a brief power failure

could cause a deterioration in efficiency which could last for several hours .

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The power is generated on site by diesel-driven alternator units with suffi­

cient capacity to provide full power for essential services in the event of one unit

failing. The present installation consists of three units with an output of 850

kilowatts. A fourth unit will be installed shortly to increase this to 1,000 kilo­

watts.

9. STAFFING THE STATION

The Department of Supply has responsibility for establishment and operation

of NASA tracking and communication stations within Australia. This function is

exercised through the agency of the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE). In

the early days of space exploration, when the requirement was comparatively

small, the management and operation was conducted wholly by WRE staff.

However, it is the policy of the Australian Government to utilise the resour­

ces of private industry and enterprise in the space research activities being

carried out in Australia on behalf of NASA. This arrangement is now working

satisfactorily at other tracking installations, and has been extended to Tidbinbilla.

A contract has been let to SpaceTrack Pty. Ltd., a jointly owned subsidiary of

Hawker de Havilland (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Elliott-Automation (pty. ) Ltd. , ·and

Australian Electrical Industries Pty. Ltd., for the operation and maintenance of

the station under the direction of a Department of Supply station director who is a

senior officer of the Weapons Research Establishment. The contractor employs

about 100 people at the Tidbinbilla station.

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Operations and Engineering Building

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DESIGNED liND PRINTED BY TECHNICIiI SECRETIIRIAT GRDt/P, W.R .E.

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